


Nobody gave you the right to decide

by MitDerSonne



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Dubious Morality, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Murder, Panic Attacks, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 07:06:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15791475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MitDerSonne/pseuds/MitDerSonne
Summary: Ching-Li Hsiao has been working together with the Qs Squad on a few investigations already. She slowly got used to the sight of corpses and gore, but she was yet to see a murder herself, and the thought of committing one was still a terrifying experience that no previous training at the Garden could teach her to overcome. Hsiao has to find the inner strength to overcome the grey morality of her job and grit her teeth through the next investigation.





	Nobody gave you the right to decide

The Bulldozer Investigation.

That was one of the smaller fishes in the 2nd ward, but a case complicated enough and with enough potential to become something media-worthy. To avoid further damage done by the reckless ghoul, dubbed "Bulldozer", the CCG delegated the investigation responsibilities to the Quinx Squad. A short time had passed since Ginshi Shirazu's death at the Tsukiyama and Rose extermination operation, and the team was freshly reformed. Three new additions, Higemaru Touma, Shinsanpei Aura and Ching-Li Hsiao, to fill the gap that the resignation of Sasaki and the transfer of Mutsuki left. Saiko was currently very indulgent when it came to her responsibilities as a Depute Squad leader, maybe to not let her thoughts about the recent events get to her. This is why she had left to a nearby town together with Shinsanpei, to investigate a potential sighting of Serpent, despite the clues being only wishful thinking. It was just Hsiao, Urie and Hige left to examine the most recent two murder scenes from this week, just as full of destruction as it should have been expected.

There was a reason the ghoul was nicknamed 'Bulldozer'. Yes, he did kill to eat, but he usually targeted work places or small business. He got one of the victims and dragged the body to his hideout, which confirmed the great agility and brute power of the ghoul, as confirmed by eye-witnesses. However, he proceeded to wreak havoc at the place and used his presumably Bikaku kagune to blow giant holes in the walls, enough to make the building collapse from the inside, bringing the total number of victims in the two cases to 36. 

36 victims for just 2 bodies worth of food was already something big, but it was expected that the ghoul would not make a reappearance soon - currently the 2nd ward was heavily secured with Doves and it would be unwise to strike there. 

***

"Time of death: around midnight."

Urie's cold metallic voice echoed through the wrecked corridor in the small business house "Koba'n'Koba" . The number of victims almost doubled this time. Three attacks for just 10 days. Interesting. They were still examining the corpses at the scene, together with quite a few Bureau investigators lent from the 4th ward where the incident occured. It was definitely the Bulldozer and this time the corpses were around 30 overall. Nobody survived to tell the events of the night, but apparently during a late-night shift they were ambushed and brutally murdered one by one, until the second floor collapsed into itself and Bulldozer apparently escaped, this time not even carrying a corpse. It was not a murder out of hunger anymore, it was all about being demonstrative.

Hsiao's nose quickly felt the foul stench of blood spilled everywhere around the casual-looking furniture that remained in the near-to-collapse first floor of the building. She reluctantly came in after Urie and Hige, who had been identifying bodies for about an hour now. She had to alarm the administration about the case first, which made her get there late. She walked through the dark corridor - the light were all shattered and the floor was covered with blood and broken glass. Her low heels made a quiet sound as she stepped towards her colleagues, who didn't seem to notice her and were too engulfed in their work. Urie finally took notice of Hsiao and greeted her with a soft smile, despite the circumstances in which they were right now, he remained professional and friendly. She greeted the both of them and asked about all the details till now. Urie gave her the complete report.

"So 32 victims?"

"For now." - Urie confirmed. 

"What is the next step? We can't actively hunt a ghoul we have almost zero visual evidence of."

Urie shrugged his shoulders. Bulldozer made sure nobody remained to tell the CCG anything that would endanger his security. It was not to be expected that he would be so greedy and cheeky but he was still roaming free, a troublesome turn of events for the Doves. 

"We got something actually." - a young blond-haired investigator of lower ranks came near the trio and bowed respectfully to his superiors. He proceeded to hand Hsiao a laptop, with a shattered screen but enough of it left to play a video of some sort. 

"The security camera managed to record this short clip before being blown away." - Tobuya Kimisaki, apparently this was the name of the rank 3 investigator, then played the video with its distorted picture and poor quality.

But it was really obvious that the scene started out completely peacefully until a large hole was blown into the wall from the outside, as if the ghoul had launched itself from a nearby building. A big black robe, accompanied by red scarves hanging from the sleeves and one wrapped around the head, allowing only for the eyes and mouth to appear visible. The poor workers had little to no time to react as Bulldozer swung his kagune and proceeded to rip them apart viciously. One-minute long video, and then the camera stopped working because of some debris hitting it frontally, apparently. Hsiao gulped at the sight. She hadn't looked around yet, but seeing the backstory to this place's destruction gave her quite the shivers. She sighed before turning back and finally getting the full picture of the massacre. The first thing Hsiao's cold grey eyes noticed were the many many white covers over what were apparently bodies, or more accurately their remains, as she was still able to see several severed legs and intestines smashed between the fallen parts of the walls. She gulped again and turned to Urie.

"So black and red clothes. And no specific mask whatsoever. A height of above 1.95 metres as visible when compared to the victims. Or he could have been simply wearing boots." - her analytical mindset was a key component to the Qs investigative power.

Urie nodded.

"And a muscular build. The kagune is definitely Bikaku, judging from the large size and the way it wrapped around his entire hip area to enhance the kicks." - he added.

"A bit like Serpent."

"Exactly."

While the two black-haired investigators discusses the video, Kamisaki wrote down all the necessary information into the ghoul's criminal profile. He found it funny how similar the two of them were, going as far as to even use similar language and gestures while going around the room. Two very calculative, seemingly cold people, both Koukaku users with a wide investigative background and offering great potential. The newbie couldn't have ever suspected that Hsiao was of a lower rank compared to Urie, and that she hand't even made her first kill yet. 

Hige finally finished his part of the investigation by completing the description of the scene and got close to his friends.

"I have a bad feeling about this." - he said as he scratched the back of his pink-haired head.

"Of course you do, just look around us." - said Hsiao.

"No point in staying here anymore, the others will clean up."

Urie led the other two out of the dark room and to the backyard of the building, which had remained blissfully clean and comparatively untouched. He realised it must be hard for his two new underlings to go into their first serious investigation head on. He didn't intend to spare them any of the effort, but if possible he'd attempt to at least not let them drown in the feeling of death lingering around every time something happened.

The three of them was about to leave with their car, but then they heard a large blow coming from about two blocks away, down the street. All the investigators were alarmed at once and came out of the crime scene. Screams followed the loud noise, and the same thought went through the mind of every single person there.

"It's the Bulldozer ghoul!" - Kamisaki yelled as he looked through his binocular.

The group moved swiftly towards the sound and came just in time to see a man flying just across the street, head missing. His body hit the pavement and splashed with entrails from the sheer force of the apparent blow. Another person flew, this one screaming, but thankfully Urie managed to catch him mid-air. Hsiao and Hige were quick to react and jumped right at the centre of the massacre, kagune activated. 

With a quick double jump, utilizing his Bikaku, Hige found himself on top of the balcony, where he could see what happened inside the small one-floor building through the hole in the roof. 

"Hsiao, he's here-"

Hige was interrupted by a giant kagune mass smashing a bigger hole through the ceiling and straight into Hige, who flew high in the sky. Hsiao didn't worry a lot about him, his Quinx powers would grant him a soft landing. She jumped through the hole herself and caught a glimpse of Bulldozer just as he broke through the back wall and let go of the person he was holding by the collar. He truly looked massive, and his blue kagune swirled like a spring behind him, now small and agile but apparently able to extend and expand immensely. 

The murderous ghoul ran towards the small alleys, jumping and subsequently smashing the cars he used as platforms on his way. Hsiao wrapped the kagune around her arms and extended it in the form of spikes, which she used to jump even higher than Bulldozer. Urie and the others were following, but just in the middle of the alley, Bulldozer sprung up with his kagune and threw several bricks that he had apparently been carrying during the chase. Hsiao managed to dodge them, but the time to do so was enough for the enemy to go on the roof and quickly push the metal plates on top over the small street, blocking the back exit. 

"Hsiao!"

Urie shouted as she was still looking around startled. They quickly got together and regrouped, expecting Bulldozer to strike any second. It became quiet all of a sudden, as the investigators were too scared to make a sound. Urie knelt down next to Hige, he had a broken leg now after the hit. 

"Just stay still..." - he was saying as he wrapped his leg in a cloth, Bulldozer apparently having ran away after several minutes. 

Hsiao was about to sigh with relief when she noticed the black figure falling down towards Urie and Hige. She leapt across the street, making only two steps before jumping up and striking the attacking Bulldozer right through the gut with her Koukaku. She felt the blood spurt from the enormous wound right onto her face and shoulder. Her disgust was quickly replaced by a weird sense of achievement - it was her first big catch anyway. 

"God..." 

Urie and Hige were both slightly covered in the blood of the ghoul, but didn't get hit. The corpse fell down subsequently, ripped in half from the chest downwards. Only the wrapped in scarves face probably remained whole, but who cared about that anyway. Hsiao and the others cleaned their faces from the blood when she felt a weird stench in the air. It was a similar smell to the one in the previous building. This wasn't... And this corpse was definitely smaller than the figure she was chasing after just now. 

A weird fate-like instinct made her kneel down to the corpse and take the scarlet scarf off. It wasn't tied like the one Bulldozer wore, the face was covered, it didn't look practical to go around with this thing on. Hsiao shivered when she took the cloth off and revealed the short blond hair under it. The face had still suffered some damage but it was visible that this was the younger investigator, Kamisaki. 

Despite all the years of training and near-death experiences, Hsiao was still incredibly scared from the sight of what had happened. She was shivering and her face was still dripping with the blood of her colleague... 

Urie stood up and got near her, pulling her away from the body and hugging her tightly, covering her face with his gloved hands, cleaning the blood off. 

"It isn't your fault. Bulldozer took him as a hostage while we were distracted. I take full responsibility. What matters now is..."

Urie stopped talking and looked at her expression. Her face was still twisted with regret and tears had started pouring down her cheeks, despite her not producing even a sound. He sighed and took her hand in his.

"You have no choice in the matter. Things happen, people die, and we are stuck in this cycle." - he continued.

He pulled her closer one more time and whispered in her ear "Nobody gave you the right to decide for yourself."

She was still shivering and eventually started crying with voice, but Urie didn't let go of her before she regained her composure. He kept on explaining how it was all alright but he realised himself that this ghoul didn't just do massive damage to its victims today - he threw the guilt at the investigators as well.

**Author's Note:**

> I think Hsiao is quite an interesting character, and her experiences as a new member of the squad should get more light. I guess I'll end up writing about her and Urie a lot haha.


End file.
